News from AAOS: Consumers Union Pushes for Hip, Knee Implant Warranties

Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy division of Consumer Reports, is taking its campaign to convince medical device companies to provide warranties for hip and knee implants directly to the doctors who perform the operations. The Union has launched an ad campaign and conducted outreach activities this past week during the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual conference in New Orleans, La.

Consumers Union has called on medical device manufacturers to provide warranties to cover the cost of replacing a hip or knee implants that fail prematurely because of a product defect.

This week’s ad campaign includes an ad in support of the campaign in the New Orleans edition of USA Today, a mobile billboard that circlated within the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, and ads at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Consumers Union staff and activists also conducted outreach about the push for implant warranties outside the convention center where the AAOS annual meeting occurred.

“Getting a hip or knee implant is a major life decision and high stakes purchase for patients,” said Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project (safepatientproject.org). “Medical device makers should be willing to provide a warranty that spells out how long they will stand by their products and a process for getting it replaced at no cost if the implant turns out to be defective.”

Nearly 1.2 million hip and knee surgeries are performed annually in the United States – making them an increasingly common procedure. Demand is expected to escalate in the future, nearly quadrupling by 2030. More than half of those patients are expected to be under 65 years old.

Most hip and knee implants perform well and can last up to 20 years. But the AAOS estimates that 10 percent will fail for various reasons, from infection and trauma to loosening or poor implant positioning.

However, medical implants sometimes fail due to a product defect, such as the unusually high failure rates experienced by patients with the Johnson & Johnson DePuy ASR XL metal hip implant. Data gathered from Australia, England, and Wales, where devices are tracked through national registries, showed that one in eight of these devices failed within five years.

A Consumers Union review of medical device recalls found that all major hip and knee implant manufacturers have recalled a product or line of products for defects over the past decade. Currently, when defective implants have to be replaced, the cost for additional surgery and a new device is now largely paid by patients or their insurance companies, including Medicare. These revision surgeries cost more, result in longer hospital stays and can often lead to additional surgeries.

“Millions of patients are expected to undergo hip and knee replacement surgeries in the decades ahead,” said McGiffert. “Medical device makers should have the confidence to stand by their testing and marketing claims and offer warranties covering product defects. Patients and their insurance companies shouldn’t have to foot the bill to replace defective devices.”